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Minor changes and planning next steps.

This commit is contained in:
Nathaniel Beaver
2015-09-25 15:30:04 -05:00
parent d7e5a49b20
commit 84a2ad03ac

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@@ -511,13 +511,15 @@ at least not with standard Windows software.
.. _case-preserving: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_preservation
.. _not be possible to read or modify both of those files: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc976809.aspx
This behavior exists to maintain `compatibility with MS-DOS`_ filesystems.
MS-DOS was based on QDOS/86-DOS,
This API behavior exists to maintain `compatibility with MS-DOS`_ filesystems.
MS-DOS was built on QDOS/86-DOS,
which was `heavily influenced by CP/M`_
(another case-insensitive OS [#CPM_case_insensitive]_),
which in turn was heavily influenced by RT-11,
a competitor with Unix on the PDP-11.
.. TODO: source that RT-11 influenced CP/M.
.. _compatibility with MS-DOS: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365247(v=vs.85).aspx
.. _heavily influenced by CP/M: http://dosmandrivel.blogspot.com/2007/08/is-dos-rip-off-of-cpm.html
@@ -525,6 +527,7 @@ Why did RT-11 use case-insensitive filenames?
Because it didn't use ASCII for filenames,
it used an encoding called `RADIX-50`_ to save memory.
It also used three-character extensions.
.. TODO: source that says it saved memory.
.. _RADIX-50: http://nemesis.lonestar.org/reference/telecom/codes/radix50.html
@@ -536,6 +539,10 @@ It also used three-character extensions.
http://cryptosmith.com/2013/10/19/digitals-rt-11-file-system/
Radix-50 is not used much anymore,
probably because it omits many characters (e.g. ``_`` and ``-``),
but its lack of case-sensitivity endures to this day.
The lack of agreement on filename case-sensitivity
may seem insignificant today,
but it leads to non-trivial difficulties